Mariah Mundi and the Ship of Fools

by G. P. Taylor

  There was a commotion on the stairway. The hatch door was flung open.

  ‘They have found Sachnasun,’ Mr Ellerby said as he stormed onto the lifeboat deck. ‘He is injured – a blow to the head.’

  Tharakan turned and looked at him. ‘Has he said anything? Does he know how it happened?’ he asked.

  Mariah and Biba looked at each other and then slipped out of sight.

  ‘He is still not conscious-I don’t know if he ever will be,’ Ellerby replied as he looked at Charity. ‘They found him by the entrance to the steam generator. He seems to have been just left there in the last hour.’

  ‘Then go and be with him,’ Tharakan said as two sailors took their places at the lowering wheels. ‘It is nearly time to put the lifeboat to sea.’

  A small crowd had gathered on the passenger deck above. They watched as the lifeboat was lowered to the water from the speeding ship. Some murmured in discontent, wondering why the Captain of the ship should be so concerned with launching an unmanned lifeboat.

  ‘Should we not stop, Captain Tharakan?’ Charity asked. ‘If the lifeboat sinks then we are done for.’

  ‘Fret not, Charity,’ he replied. ‘You shall be amazed how we launch the lifeboats on the Triton.’

  There was a whir of the capstan as the lifeboat was lowered down towards the turbid water. The sea was disturbed by the wake of the ship that rippled out like the carving of a plough. The water appeared viscous and stiff, the wavelets laborious and cumbersome.

  ‘Then I await to be amazed,’ Charity replied as he watched the boat go lower and lower.

  ‘The most expensive lifeboat that ever put to sea,’ said Casper Vikash as he caught Charity’s eye.

  ‘A ransom worth the life of the people on this ship – wouldn’t you think? You have been prepared to give your life for the Marquis – you should know of what I speak,’ Charity replied.

  ‘My life would mean nothing to save his,’ Casper replied. He touched the piranha scars on his face. ‘I would do it again to save him.’

  ‘Such loyalty is worth rewarding – saving the Marquis, Biba and their family life,’ Charity replied.

  ‘You know too much, Captain Charity. Someone has been speaking out of turn. I told the Marquis it would be dangerous to have you so close. Madame DeFeaux should know when to be silent.’

  ‘Mergyn has said nothing – the last time I saw her was at dinner with the Marquis,’ Charity replied as the Marquis DeFeaux came and stood with them.

  ‘Do you think this is an act of stupidity, Charity, or will it save the ship?’ asked the Marquis as he wrapped his checked scarf tightly around his neck.

  ‘I think we shall see in the next twenty-four hours. I only hope the gold is not lost to the sea,’ he said.

  ‘You still do not trust me?’ Tharakan asked, overhearing the conversation. ‘What you are about to see is a miracle of science, an invention of –’

  ‘Lorenzo Zane, by chance?’ asked Charity.

  ‘Precisely,’ Tharakan replied as the Marquis stiffened his frame.

  The lifeboat dangled on the end of two ropes as the Triton sped through the water. Captain Tharakan nodded to the man at the lowering wheel. Without speaking he pulled a small brass lever at the front of the cradle that had held the boat in place. There were two loud bangs as the boat touched the water. Incredibly, the lifeboat hit the sea safely and was left behind in the wake of the ship. It remained upright as it rocked violently from side to side.

  ‘Amazing, Charity?’ Tharakan asked. ‘It is designed so that if anyone falls overboard we can put a lifeboat in the sea immediately. It takes eleven nautical miles for the ship to stop at full speed – this way we have a chance of saving them.’

  ‘Then we shall pray that the gold is safe and whoever is out in this blue desert will find it easily,’ Charity replied cordially as he looked for Mariah. ‘Biba and Mariah were here – but now they are not.’

  ‘They wanted to see the circus,’ said Casper Vikash as he patted Charity on the back. ‘Biba likes to see Shanjing – she is fascinated by him.’

  DeFeaux watched this gesture silently.

  ‘If she were not promised to young Lorenzo, we could have …’ mused DeFeaux as he pulled up the fur collar of his coat and nodded to Vikash to open the hatch. ‘I expect they will turn up sooner or later. Vikash will go and look for them – Biba can take care of herself.’

  ‘But I never saw them leave. They were by the lifeboat and the hatch never opened,’ Charity replied.

  ‘Come, Charity. Let us go to my apartment. Tharakan will come with us. We need to search the ship and find the bomb,’ said DeFeaux as he disappeared through the hatch.

  Charity took one long look back at the sea. He felt uneasy, as if a small voice spoke to his heart that all was not well. He turned and checked the lifeboat deck once more.

  ‘Mariah! Mariah!’ he shouted, sure the boy could hear him.

  Left behind by the Triton, the lifeboat was rocked gently on the cold, black ocean. Not one ripple broke the surface of the viscous sea. The moon shone down its bitter blue rays and outlined the Triton as it sailed away.

  Softly, quietly, the forward hatch of the lifeboat was lifted upwards. A white hand, etched in the blue of the moon, reached out and pushed back the red tarpaulin.

  ‘We did it!’ Biba said as she looked out and watched the ship sailing into the distance.

  ‘Should never have left the ship – it’s madness,’ Mariah replied.

  ‘So you don’t want to know who is stealing all my father’s money?’ Biba asked as the Triton sailed into the darkness.

  ‘But we’ll get caught and they don’t know we’re here. Don’t you ever think?’ he said.

  ‘Father will come for us – he always does. I left him a note,’ she replied.

  ‘But he doesn’t know you are here. They could search the ship and think we have gone overboard,’ Mariah said as the gravity of what he had done weighed heavily upon him.

  ‘But …’ was all Biba could say as her voice faded. ‘You came with me …’

  ‘I came with you because I knew you were mad enough to go on your own,’ he replied.

  ‘You could have told them,’ she said, now hoping that he had.

  ‘You jumped into the lifeboat – I had to follow you. Then before I could do anything we were in the sea,’ Mariah said, chiding himself for pursuing her.

  ‘But – we will get rescued?’ she asked as if suddenly she saw the flaw in her own plan. ‘My father will come – won’t he?’

  Mariah held his face in his hands and sighed. It felt as if he was in a dream – a dream from which he would wake soon and find himself back on the ship. It had seemed right to follow Biba into the lifeboat. He sensed her excitement. The words she had said seemed so convincing – ‘Let’s find out who the thieves are …’ It was possible, he could do it without Charity. After all, he too was an agent of the Bureau of Antiquities. Only now, as he sat curled in the forward hatch of the lifeboat, did he have doubts. He should have known that anything Biba suggested could and would go wrong. Charity had warned him that whenever you ventured into enemy territory, you should always make sure you had a way of escape.

  Now, Mariah felt like he was the bait on the end of a hook. That he would just have to wait to be captured. Once the thieves realised they had got hold of Biba DeFeaux then he knew she would be ransomed. He also knew that his own fate was uncertain.

  ‘Why did you do it?’ he asked indignantly.

  ‘It was a quest and quests are to be followed,’ Biba said as she looked again from the hatch. ‘It seemed like a good idea – a spur-of-the-moment good idea … My necklace! I have lost my diamond necklace!’ she gasped as if the weight of her venture now pressed on her heart.

  Mariah wasn’t listening. His fingers fumbled with the lock on the inside of the hatch that led into the lifeboat.

  ‘There could be a way. It has to be that they will come for the boat. We could hide,’ he said, his voice st
rained. ‘They might unload the boat or lift it from the water – just pray they don’t decide to sink us.’

  He scrabbled through the hatch and into the lifeboat. There, under the thick red tarpaulin, was the gold. The ingots were stacked five high, covering the deck in between the wooden seats. They were wedged in place with life-jackets pushed against the gold. Mariah pulled back the tarpaulin so he could see more. In the corner was a black box. The lid was tied with a rubber seal.

  ‘Flares,’ he said to Biba as he pulled the tag on the box and its lid fell open.

  There, held in place with a rubber strap, was a brass pistol and five thick cartridges. Mariah pulled the gun from its holder and pushed the cartridges into his pocket.

  ‘We can use this,’ he said, closing up the box and replacing the seal the best he could. ‘If we’re going to get out of this you’ll have to do what I say, understand?’

  Biba nodded. Then she spoke: ‘I think you’d better come and look,’ she said, her eyes saying more than her words.

  Mariah pulled back the tarpaulin and crawled into the forward hatch. He shut the small door and then reached up to peer out of the top hatch. Coming towards them was an old ship. It had river paddles, one steam funnel and two sail masts, half-rigged. As it cut through the water it looked as if it were a stack of small thatched houses piled on each other. The starboard light glowed dimly as it got nearer.

  ‘Do you think it’s them?’ Biba asked.

  ‘It’s a paddle steamer. Shouldn’t be this far out at sea. It’ll be lucky if it makes it across the Atlantic,’ he said.

  ‘But do you think it’s them?’ she asked impatiently.

  ‘We’ll soon find out,’ he said as a small cannon fired high into the night sky.

  There was a blinding explosion that lit the horizon. The blast roared towards them, rippling the water with small waves.

  ‘Get down!’ Mariah shouted. ‘They’ll see us.’

  Biba pulled the hatch lid and slammed out the light. They sat together in the darkness. The sound of the steam trader got closer and closer. The engine churned relentlessly, paddles beating the water as it drew alongside the lifeboat. Mariah held his breath as the two craft rubbed against each other and footsteps crunched against the side of the boat.

  ‘Hook it on – we have to get the lifeboat into the hold,’ a man shouted. ‘Then we can signal to the Triton.’

  Mariah put his hand over Biba’s mouth. He knew she was going to speak.

  The lifeboat juddered slightly. It felt as if it was being plucked from the water by giant fingers and that the sea wouldn’t give it up. There was a moment when the boat didn’t move. Then it burst from the water and hung in the air, spinning back and forth as it clattered against the wooden side of the steam trader.

  ‘Be still,’ Mariah whispered. ‘We are being lowered into the hold.’

  The lifeboat went down and down as a winch whirred and crunched. Even inside the forward hatch they could feel the icy cold as they went deeper. Muffled voices shouted overhead and steel cables scraped against the side of the hold. It was as if they were being swallowed into the belly of a gigantic fish. Then suddenly the lifeboat halted. It tipped to one side as the cables slipped from the mooring rings.

  Mariah heard the chains rattle as they were pulled from the hold. Men laughed drunkenly.

  ‘Rich, Mr Chamberlain, very rich,’ shouted a voice above them.

  What light there was that came from the moon through a crack in the hatch soon vanished, as the deck above them slid into place.

  ‘What shall we do?’ Biba asked as she gulped back tears. ‘I want Casper Vikash …’

  ‘We’ll wait and see who comes. When they find out who you are, they will realise they have more than gold,’ Mariah replied. Just then the cannon on deck fired again, rocking the steam trader from side to side.

  ‘Will they kill me?’ she asked.

  ‘Ransom you,’ Mariah replied.

  A door opened and stopped their conversation. It creaked on its hinges, giving them warning. Mariah tried to work out from which direction it came. Before he could think, a rope was thrown over the boat and then another and another until it was tied down. He could tell there was just one man outside. The man never spoke but occasionally he would whistle the end of a song and then another, changing tunes with every breath.

  The red tarpaulin was pulled back. Mariah saw the shining of a lamp through the crack in the hatch. A shadow crossed back and forth. The man stood on the side of the lifeboat and then jumped inside. He lifted a heavy ingot and then threw it to the floor of the hold. It thudded heavily.

  ‘All the gold I’ll ever need,’ the man said. He jumped from the boat to the deck, opened the creaking door and then slammed it behind him.

  They waited until they could wait no more. Mariah spoke first, his mouth dry, yet so close to Biba that he could feel the warmth of her face.

  ‘I’ll go and see what I can find. Stay here,’ he said.

  ‘I hate the dark … I’ve never never been alone in the dark – I’ll have to come with you,’ she stuttered anxiously as the blackness of the ship pressed in on her like a tomb.

  ‘You’ll have to stay – I promise I won’t be long,’ Mariah said as he slowly opened the hatch and looked outside.

  ‘Mariah, don’t go!’ Biba insisted as he climbed from the small opening and onto the deck of the lifeboat.

  ‘Just stay in the hatch. Close your eyes and imagine a light inside your head – that’s what I do, it always works for me.’

  Leaving Biba inside, Mariah closed the lid of the hatch and pulled back the tarpaulin and then dropped to the floor. It was as if a voice inside him was telling him what to do. Carefully he crossed the floor of the hold to where he had heard the creaking door.

  Shadows appeared to grow on shadows and shapes leapt before his eyes. He walked like a blind man, hands outstretched, until he reached the wall. Mariah traced his fingers over the wooden beams, following them sideways until they came to the joist that made the shape of the doorway. He fumbled for the handle, twisted it until it sprung open and then waited.

  There was nothing but the thud, thud, thud of the steam piston that turned the ship’s paddles. He pulled the door open an inch and peered out into a long passageway. It was lit by two oil lamps where a flight of wooden steps turned towards the door. There was a rancid smell of fish and whale oil. It floated in the air as a fine mist and glistened in the muted light.

  He pushed slowly against the door and then waited again. There was nothing, no one. Mariah could feel the flare gun against his ribs. He had rammed it into his black Spiderweb waistcoat. As he closed the hold door behind him, he wished he were not alone.

  ‘Did the Triton see the flare?’ a voice asked from the corner of the stairs.

  ‘It did. Markesan signalled,’ replied another. ‘They have not found the bomb and the ship will explode in twenty hours.’

  ‘And his escape?’ the man asked.

  ‘He will lower himself to the water and then we shall rescue him,’ came the reply as the voices came nearer to Mariah, who had nowhere to hide.

  ‘Good – then we shall watch the fastest ship in the world sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.’ The man laughed.

  [14]

  Markesan

  THE stateroom of Deck 13 was thick with smoke from a chain of Havana cigars smoked by the Marquis DeFeaux as he paced up and down. With every step he puffed the smouldering noxious blue tobacco into the room and coughed as he spoke.

  ‘So where can she be?’ he asked Casper Vikash anxiously. ‘You said she had gone to the circus with Mariah Mundi.’

  ‘I thought they had,’ he replied, seeing the true worry on Biba’s father’s face.

  ‘Then you should find her – have you spoken to Charlemagne?’ he asked.

  ‘Ellerby said that Charlemagne hasn’t seen her – she never went backstage after the performance,’ said Vikash.

  ‘But she has to be somewhere –
she cannot vanish, not Biba DeFeaux,’ he shouted angrily as his wife entered the room dressed in a sparkling gown of shimmering ruby. ‘Mergyn – Biba is missing.’ Mergyn dropped her gaze. She thought for a moment without speaking until the Marquis prodded her shoulder with the tips of his fingers. ‘She is missing – don’t you understand?’

  ‘I know already,’ she said as she held out her hand.

  There, draped through her fingers, was an old gold necklace with a cluster of diamonds. It glistened in the light from the chandelier.

  ‘Where?’ asked the Marquis quite simply.

  ‘A crewman found it on the lifeboat deck. It was dangling from the cables below. He said it was glinting in the moonlight and that’s how he saw it,’ Madame DeFeaux replied as she held back her tears.

  ‘It can’t be. I will not have it,’ he protested. He threw the cigar to the floor, then stamped it into the carpet. ‘She will not be lost to the sea …’

  The steam elevator opened on Deck 13 and Charity stepped out. He was still out of breath. His eyes flicked from the Marquis to Mergyn and then to Vikash. They were all silent and stood like the witnesses to death.

  ‘What do you know?’ he asked calmly as their sombre look spoke of a great bereavement.

  ‘Biba has fallen overboard – with Mariah. This has been found. Her necklace. She would never take it off, never,’ Mergyn said fretfully.

  ‘We were there and we never saw a thing,’ the Marquis said as he stepped away from his wife. Charity looked at them both and realised, in that instant, that all love had been lost between them.

  ‘That is why I know they did not fall into the sea.’ Charity spoke firmly and without emotion. ‘They would have screamed and we would have known. They are either still on this ship or they hid in the lifeboat.’ He kept his eyes fixed on Mergyn as if he looked for something within her heart. ‘We can only be sure when we have searched the ship. I suggest Casper and I go together – then we can be sure. If they cannot be found then I think that both of us have lost more than the gold.’